Fast-food workers' strike in Flint, Detroit put on hold; other plans in place for future demonstrations

McDonald's workers in Flint and Detroit won't walk off the job today, but future actions to increase wages are in the planning stage.Shaun Byron | MLive

FLINT, MI – Flint and Detroit fast-food workers won’t strike today according to a representative from the organization who helped organize the May 10 fast-food walkouts in Detroit.

Darci McConnell, a representative for Detroit-15 – a coalition of faith-based and labor organizations that fights for higher wages for employees – said that the proposed national day of fast-food worker strikes won’t take place today, but there are plans for action in Flint.

“There is no strike planned for today. I will have (information)
detailing what’s occurring in Flint” in the future,” McConnell said.

The strike was to include Flint and Detroit fast-food workers, as well as workers from New York, Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo.

Workers at Flint area McDonald's refused to elaborate on what a one-day
strike would mean for them or their wages, but several said that they
were not aware of a proposed walk-off that was supposed to happen today.

McConnell didn’t specify whether future plans include a walkout or other actions.

The Washington Post reported last week that Flint and Detroit were two of seven cities nationally where workers at fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and KFC would band together and walk off the job, demanding for higher wages up to $15 per hour in some cases.

Labor attorney Cliff Hammond of Detroit-based employment law firm Nemeth Burwell, P.C., says the walkouts are part of a national trend as unions seek to expand membership amid a dramatic drop in traditional core union membership of manufacturing workers over the past 10-plus years.

“Fast food workers are the next frontier for union organizing activities because that job sector represents a large group of potential members who, until recently, have been completely untouched by unions and their organizing efforts,” Hammond said.

“What is interesting about this particular trend is that the force behind the protests is not only the unions. This is a collaborative effort among unions, public interest groups and even religious organizations and leaders to bring attention to perceived low wages, part-time work hours and a lack of benefits.”

Hammond said that the groups view these types of actions not only as a means to organize employees into unions, but to also publicize and draw greater attention to their common goals, including social causes and significant increases in minimum wages.

Hammond is former attorney for the Service Employees International Union – the nation’s largest service workers’ union.

The protests are backed by a network of community, clergy and labor groups across the country, including the SEIU.

“SEIU members, like all service-sector workers, are worse off when large fast-food and retail companies are able to hold down wages and push down benefit standards for working people,” Mary Kay Henry, SEIU president, said in a release.

Hammond said that the worker’s push toward unionizing with organized walkouts is a survivalist strategy, and a good one at that.

“Union organizing is a strategic sales strategy initiative. Enlisting church pastors, community organizers and other public interest groups is yet another way to draw attention to worker issues, gain sympathetic supporters and ultimately convert workers to union members,” he said.

“Unions are aggressive and persistent by nature. In some respects, the new Michigan Right to Work law has stimulated union activity. The walkouts by fast food workers in Detroit and Flint are a perfect example,” says Hammond.